Musician Rustie's Glass Swords wins the Guardian First Album Award

The Guardian today announced that musician Rustie is the winner of the First Album Award for Glass Swords, an album the judges felt encapsulated the state of music in 2011.

Glass Swords draws on trance, funk, rave, west coast hip-hop and even the Seinfeld theme tune on its mission to make an album that is both futuristic and irresistibly danceable. Featuring tracks such as All Nite and Flash Back, the record is restlessly inventive but also warm and joyous, with pop hooks scattered throughout.

This year's winner was selected by a judging panel made up of the Guardian's chief pop critic Alexis Petridis, Observer pop critic Kitty Empire, the Guardian Guide's assistant editor, Rebecca Nicholson and Tim Jonze, along with Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers and last year's winner, Gold Panda.

Rustie said of his win: "It feels great and surreal to win the first album award from the Guardian, one of the few decent newspapers out there. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks."

Now in their fourth year, the Guardian's First Album and First Film awards recognise new and emerging talent in their respective areas, especially those that may not have initially received the attention they deserved.

Tim Jonze, editor of theguardian.com/music and an awards judge, said: "More than any other album on the list, Rustie's Glass Swords felt like it summed up the state of music over the last 12 months – a sensory overload of sound to represent our attention-hopping, information-soaked age. But it was more than just a technical feat, and the judges praised its emotional edge and subtle attention to detail too, not to mention its perfect understanding of how a record works on the dancefloor."